Hatter yelled at me to do another, and I couldn't resist. (Actually, I can't think of any woman that could resist that man...)
Chapter 2
Why the hell wasn't she running?!
They were in the forest, trying to shake of the pursuit of a deck of flying Aces, Scarabs, and Suits, led by what he would have sworn was the ghost of Mad March with a rabbit cookie jar on his head. (It should have clashed horribly with that ugly black dress suit, but somehow, March made it work. If nothing else, the man had Style.) He had to do something to get the Suits to leave the two of them alone, long enough to escape. He knew that if he could lead a Jabberwock to the Cards, it could easily distract them long enough for he and Alice to get enough of a head start to be reasonably safe. For a while.
Maybe for a day or two.
Either way, it would help!
And yet she still stood there, holding his arm. She was shaking, she was scared, and no matter what he told her, she Wouldn't. Let. Go. of His. Bloody. Arm!
It was like she was objecting to his being the bait for the Jabberwock. Like she thought it was a stupid idea to make a giant, unknown, but certainly carnivorous monster chase after you all for the sake of chasing off some other, less carnivorous, but certainly just as dangerous, pursuers.
...well, egads, when you put it that way, it did sound more mad than anything he usually dealt in, didn't it? And indeed, quite stupid.
Why was he doing this again? Getting in such appalling amounts of unasked-for trouble, how had this happened? He kept forgetting.
And then he looked in her frightened green eyes and he remembered. Her face, her stance, all of it screamed in terror. But there was not one ounce of self-preservation in those expressive eyes, not one single tiny bit of it in all her lovely, trembling body. Just Worry, Concern, Borderline Panic. It suddenly hit him like a dose of his own sledgehammer fist. She looked like that because she didn't want him to be the bait; because she didn't want him to be hurt.
Because she cared.
That forgotten something rose up again, this time in his chest, frighteningly close to his heart. It wrapped tight bands around that bothersome organ, a faint squeeze pinching him just hard enough to make him take notice.
Why? Why did she care about him so much?
And really, what was the matter with the girl?! Was imminent death and dismemberment or/and capture by horrible enemies not enough to get her moving?! He was beginning to wonder just how common such an occurrence was in her world that it provoked such a blase response here in Wonderland.
Suddenly, they heard the beast's roar, much closer than anyone was comfortable with and---There, praise the first Teapot! She was running, they were running, this might work out---
....where the hell was she going? Why was she running the other way?!
And they dared call him Mad, when clearly she was crazier than all of Wonderland put together! "Not that way!! Alice!!"